Developers Dominate Panel Chosen To Review Land Rules

TAVARES — A 10-member committee, appointed by staff members and dominated by development interests, was assigned Tuesday to review Lake County's new development rules.

In a 3-2 vote, county commissioners asked the committee to make technical changes to land-use rules required under the county's new comprehensive plan. Policy decisions would be left to others, the majority agreed.

But dissenters contended the process, while technical, could still give the development community too much control.

''If we're going to have a technical review committee,'' Commissioner Richard Swartz told his colleagues, ''it has to be more representative of the people of Lake County, and not just people who work in, work for, or give legal advice to the development community.''

Commissioner Mike Bakich also voted against assigning the panel to the technical review process.

The new rules will guide zoning, set up a slew of new environmental standards and revamp old policies. The rules are required as part of the county's state-mandated comprehensive planning process.

The technical review committee's members are engineers, planners and others, most of whom regularly represent developers before the commission. No one on the committee is a regular ally of the county's environmental activists.

But most commissioners believed adding a citizens group to the process could unnecessarily delay the rules, which must be in place by February. Commissioner C.W. ''Chick'' Gregg added that even a more balanced group might not please critics.

''I don't think anything is going to be gained'' by adding a citizens review group to the process, Gregg told Swartz. ''I think the only way you'd be happy is if it came out your way.''

The committee, which is supposed to begin work in October, was originally formed to review an information booklet on the county's development review process, said Al Thelen, who was county manager at the time. He was fired in a 3-2 vote Tuesday.

Staff members later asked to have the panel look for technical problems with new land-use rules.